Pacific Gas & Electric warned that it would likely cut power temporarily to hundreds of thousands of customers in Northern California by Wednesday night for the second time in two weeks. The company sent phone messages, texts and emails to those who might be affected by the shut-off, as a new fire in Southern California burned near multimillion-dollar homes. The sole purpose of the shut-off “is to significantly reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to our customers and communities,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president for electric operations, who made the decision to cut power to about two million people two weeks ago. Bill Johnson, PG&E’s chief executive officer, said during a news conference that “we don’t want to turn off the power,” but the threat of high winds and dry conditions increased the risk that the equipment could cause fires. He said several steps have been taken to improve the power shut-off process this time, including making community resource centers with restrooms, bottled water, chargers for electronic devices and other amenities available ahead of the blackouts.

Source: New York Times October 22, 2019 06:11 UTC